Cyclosportif Pinjarra and other topical salad

To all of you potential starters for the Pinjarra Cyclosportif. The good news is that distance for the B team is only 45kms and for the A team a mere 75kms. The bad news is that there’s a hill about 10kms long between Pinjarra and Dwellingup. Some of you will also be familiar with the rolling hills from Dwellingup as the A distance heads a further 15kms out along Del Park Rd before the turnaround/ u-turn.

Jason John is over in France at le Tour (flew out yesterday) so he won’t be on board. But for the A distance, we need you stronger riders to put your hands up for this one (especially if you have any mountain goat qualities!!)

For the B distance, there are two main things to remember - practice going up a long hill. Something like the start of Albany Highway at Armadale or Brookton Highway or even Welshpool Rd up to Canning Rd would be excellent practice. You have around 2.5 weeks to get this practice in. The other thing to remember is that you can hit pretty fast speeds coming down from Dwellingup. Now, for a lot of you, 60kph would be fast enough but I vividly recall hitting 88kph coming down this hill last time. So, in anticipation of a fast descent, practice your downhills as well (down the 3 hills I mentioned earlier is ideal)

Going downhill safely means you hold a steady line, you’re aware of other bikes around you. Some of you can adopt a special ’stance’ on the bike to be more streamlined coming down (eg head down, bum up, elbows tucked in). Don’t forget that the hill from Dwellingup back to Pinjarra eventually ends and theres still 10kms of time-trialling to finish you off.

Now that I’ve glamourised this ride, I expect lots of you to be starters. If any of you have a spare road bike for someone around 6ft tall, could you tell me? I expect we will have Team Ultra Force, Team Mega Force and Team Delta Force this time around. Remember our only allegiance is to our team (and I guess to our jersey sponsors). We obviously support all bikeshops close by such as BFSR, Cyclebuzz and AvantiPlus.

One year, I well remember us flying down on the return leg from Dwellingup , only to have the Hotham Valley steam train hold us up in crossing the road. We hit the anchors as all the train passengers were happily waving at us.

Getting to the venue is as simple as heading south on Kwinana Fwy, which becomes Forrest Hwy. Left turn on to Pinjarra Rd. Racecourse on the left when it hits SouthWest Highway.

Well done to our two teams at Swan Valley. Our A team posting 5th fastest in an awesome display. Our B team had all new riders to cyclosportif. It took a lap of sorting out our roll through and we knocked off the other 3 laps like seasoned professionals and quite strong in our finish and for the duration of the 64km ride really.

To give the rest of you a guide, the A team finished at just under 40kph average. The B team finished at around 29kph average. I think we will get enough takers for the B distance to form two teams. I imagine one will hit an average similar to 29kph and the other may be a bit quicker. You have just over a week to ponder your involvement and let me know. I’ll make sure the teams are a good fit, so to speak. I think offering a speed range in between a 29kph average and 40kph average will suit most of you. There will always be stronger riders in every team but rest assured we ride together and finish together, as a team.

I can understand some of you being a little tentative about this but it’s a great team activity and a real test of your mettle.

Don’t forget, the website link is http://www.bwa.org.au/cyclo-sportif/190/. Take time out to have a look at the elevation maps and details of the lunch, etc.

As you know, you’re all most welcome to jump aboard our Saturday morning rides at 7am outside Bikeforce Southern River. We usually return just after 9am and coffee at Kelly’s in Campbell Rd. I daresay Sunday hills rides will also emerge in these next two weeks. Just show up on the Saturday rides - we’re a friendly bunch.

On a separate note, still running with my 11yo niece around Deepwater Pt every Tues and Fri morning. Join us if you want….gotta get there for 5.50am though. Also, Thursdays from 5.30pm doing Jacob’s ladder…just don’t do 80mins in a row hard otherwise, like me, you may experience excruciating soreness in calf muscles and quadriceps. Only just recovering from last Thursday. Buying Dee some Mizuno Pro Grid Echelon shoes from The Running Centre in Hay St West Perth

Reservoir

CHRISTO